Just Breathe
by iluvaqt
Summary: AU Patriot S10E09. Like oxygen, she is vital to his survival. He doesn't want to fight without her.


**Title:** Just Breathe  
**Pairing:** Chlollie  
**Summary**: Like oxygen, she is vital to his survival. He doesn't want to fight without her.  
**Rating: **PG  
**Word count:** 2153  
**Spoilers:** AU-ish Patriot  
**Fandom:** Smallville/Sanctuary (hinted)  
**Birthday gift for :****tehzo**  
**With thanks for the Beta**: **latetothpartyhp**

This one was written before **Instincts** so sorry, they don't really link up. :( Hope you all still enjoy the read though.

**Disclaimer:** "_Smallville_" is the property of WarnerBros & The CW. Everything else belongs to DC Comics. No infringement of copyright is intended.

- 8 -

Oliver held his breath for as along as he could. If he was going to die, he'd die fighting and not wasting his breath screaming obscenities or asking fruitless questions. They had to know he was human. He'd been poked, prodded and scanned enough to confirm as much. Maybe they were just as sadistic as Flagg and liked to see him squirm, semi-naked, while they used whichever torture method of the hour they preferred.

He opened his eyes and tried to focus on all the bindings securing the chains, he had to find a weak point. What he wouldn't give to have his arrow lock pick. He tried to curl and reach for the straps around his ankles. If he could just free his legs at least he could kick for the surface and breathe while he tried to pull the Houdini they expected him to. He could feel his brain and movements turn sluggish. The urge to draw breath made his lungs burn. He couldn't stop thrashing, even though he knew every movement was using up what little air he had left in his lungs. They were going to watch him drown. They were going to watch him drown and then bring him back. Then probably do it all over again. Sad bastards.

But just before he started to feel his brain stop processing from lack of oxygen he heard a dull thump and sounds that registered faintly like gunfire. Then the glass of his watery prison broke, and he tumbled and slid across the floor, coughing and floundering like a fish.

He rolled onto his back and sucked in air greedily, his vision foggy, black smudges feathering the edges of his sight while he blinked and tried to clear the cobwebs in his brain. There were guards strewn about the room. AC was free of his chains and guzzling down from a gallon water bottle in his hands, a woman helping him stand.

There was a figure hunched over his feet. She was dressed head to toe in what looked like skin-tight black leather. The only hint of color peaking from under her hood was her green hair.

He smirked. He liked her already. She broke through the chains and snapped the bindings like they were made of paper and snapped his wrist shackles in much the same manner.

"Next time you feel like taking one for the team, make sure it's actually a life and death situation. And not so literally sacrificial."

Oliver's eyes widened. Even with a distorter, he couldn't misplace her snark. He grabbed her before she could move away. And his heart skipped a beat in gratitude, his breathing returning to regular even breaths when she didn't flee from him. "Don't go, stay," he begged quietly.

"Not here, later," she said quickly, tugging him up. "Boyscout's still unaccounted for."

Later at Watchtower, Tess checked Clark over for any residual traces of greenK, and Mera promptly took AC back to Atlantis after offering her thanks for the assisted rescue, after the boys managed to botch their rescue of Oliver by getting captured along with him.

"You knew," Oliver said glaring accusingly at Tess. "All this time you knew how to get in touch with her." At her silence Oliver realized he had his answer.

Chloe squeezed his hand tearing his attention away from glaring daggers at Tess. "It wasn't safe for any of us Ollie. I had to disappear. Yes, she knew how to contact me but it was under the proviso that she only use it if the team was irrevocably compromised."

Oliver looked at her trying to see her behind the mask, the green hair and the black suit. He tried pull off the mask but it wouldn't come away.

Chloe smiled. "It won't come off. It's handy like that."

Oliver's eyes widened. "It's not like the Prometheus suit. Chloe, it's not grafted to your skin permanently..."

Chloe chuckled. "No, I can ask it to leave me."

Oliver snorted before realizing she was serious. "It's alive?"

"A technologically altered species of telepathic bacteria, yes. Back in high school I meet a group of people who were tracking the weird and unexplained just like me. They live surrounded by the strange and abnormal. Henry, their tech man, and I kept in touch. I mentioned my problem and he mentioned that I might borrow some inside help. Long-term use is fatal to the wearer, but short-term, these tiny bugs are pretty awesome. I can do everything Clark can do... well aside from shooting fire out my eyes but considering how that's triggered mentally I don't think..." She snickered at the memory while Clark reddened, obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. "Let's just say I like how freely I can express myself around you."

Oliver stood and hugged her to him. "What do you say we get this off, and catch up on lost time. I've missed you, Professor. You have no idea."

Chloe picked up his discarded Green Arrow vest and pulled it on over her suit before putting her hand into the empty glass tank that sat on the desk chair nearby. The black ooze-like substance traveled down her arm into the containment chest changing from black to aubergine in color. When it was gone she stood there naked under his vest, mask free but with her green wig still in place. He grinned down at her and plastered her to his front so that no one else could see her body between the parted edges of his vest.

"Have I mentioned how much I love seeing you in green?" he whispered huskily, leaning into rub his nose with hers.

Chloe reached up and threaded her fingers in his hair, holding him in place. "No, but I have a feeling that you like it a lot," she said with a sultry smile, feeling his body harden in contact with hers.

Tess cleared her throat and sent them a withering look. "Happy as I am not to be playing mediator anymore, save the PDA for elsewhere, please. I think Clark's about to give himself a coronary, or pass out. Maybe both."

Oliver and Chloe glanced in Clark's direction. He was trying hard not to look at them, the redness in his face starting from his collar and coloring his whole face, while his lips actually looked a little bluish. Which was saying a lot. Clark could hold his breath for a couple hours. He must have been hyperventilating.

Oliver braced his arm under her bottom, keeping the vest trapped as it only just covered her there, while he carried her in the direction of the stairs. "Don't wait up," he yelled cheekily over his shoulder.

Tess snorted, while Chloe buried her face in his shoulder and felt a gust of displaced air breeze past them both on the way to the door leading out of Watchtower.

Oliver laid her out on the bed and stretched out next to her. He studied her intently. "If I hadn't come out and signed on for the Vigilante Registrations Act, would you have come back?"

Chloe sat up and pulled up the extra comforter from the bottom of the bed, suddenly feeling like she needed the extra shielding from his all to assessing gaze. "I left to protect you, Ollie, to protect the team. You were the one who made it impossible for me to come back."

Oliver ran his hands over his face. "That's a load of crap. You sent me a goodbye note, Chloe. It was all past tense. I did that press conference to show the world I was done hiding. They took the only good thing I had left in my life. My secrets cost me you."

Chloe scooted closer and took his face in her hands. "I kept your secret. I keep everyone's secrets Ollie. It's the life I chose, no one forced me into this. You needed me and I would do anything to save you, to protect you. I couldn't live in a world without you in it."

Oliver met her eyes and had to blink back tears. "And what about me? Did you think I could do this without you? Chloe, we're a team. I love you, we're in this together. You're still with me, right?"

"As impossibly difficult as you've made this for us. Yes, I'm still with you, Ollie. Always," she said and careened over a little to place a soft kiss on his lips. "And in case you hadn't figured it out already, I love you too, with everything I am."

Oliver wrapped her up tight, and held her close to his heart. This time he had no intention of letting her come up for air for hours. He was done talking.

Hours later they lay quietly spooning, Chloe's head tucked just under his chin, Oliver's arm around her waist, their fingers interlocked. With her free hand, Chloe trailed her fingertips over his arm where their joined hands were splayed across her stomach, anchoring her body to his.

"What do we do now?" she whispered into the pre-dawn light. Pale moonlight shone through the smaller version of the tower's rosette window that stood in the outer wall of her small bedroom. The colors, pretty and vibrant in during the day, were casting various shades of blue across their skin.

Oliver parted her hair from her neck and leaned across to kiss her pulse point softly. "Come to Star City with me. You worked pretty hard to make Chloe Sullivan disappear, and I know I played a big part in making it near impossible for us to ever be public, at least until all this anti-vigilante business, the Suicide Squad and the new dark threat Clark's worried about dies down, but the guys have always been able to lay low in my home town. We'll find a way to be together Chloe. You know that Isis exhibition I put together last month, it was in the works for a lot longer than you think, and I meant it when I told you I love you months ago."

"Isis: A Tale of Eternal Love," Chloe said smiling, trying not to giggle. She turned in his embrace and searched his face, her smile widening as she cupped his face and brushed her thumb across his cheek. "I always knew you were a total romantic, underneath all that playboy charm and bravado beats a bleeding heart."

"And you wounded me terribly when you disappeared, my Viola."

"Ollie," she said tenderly, "I want to stay with you. I really do, but until we know more about what Rick Flagg and what the rest of Checkmate are planning we can't stay together. They believe I'm dead. And for as long as they believe it, it works to our advantage. As soon as we've disabled their ability to track you, and Clark and everyone else they've marked, then we can consider your plan but until then... I need to..."

Oliver averted his gaze and swallowed tightly. "You need to disappear again," he finished for her.

Chloe took his face with both hands, turning his gaze back to her and kissed him firmly. "Not forever. And I'll always be here if you need me, you know that."

"Not when I need you, when you think I need you. There's a difference Chloe. I need you with me every minute of every day. I can't step into this place and not think about you. Wonder where you are, wishing I could see your face, hold you, hear your voice..." he trailed off, his voice getting thicker with every word he said.

Chloe put her forehead to his and put her hand to his heart. She could feel it racing beneath her touch. "As long as we're together, right now... we're vulnerable, Ollie. We can't protect each other or this team if I stay. It's not forever," she promised again her own voice wavering.

Oliver kissed her desperately, and pushed her into her back, trapping her beneath him. If all he had was a few more hours, he'd take every second he could get. She promised this wouldn't be forever, but any amount of time she was gone would be too long for him. As he made love to her with pouring out every ounce of emotion he felt for her, loving her thoroughly, passionately, till she was crying his name over and over, while they both shed tears they couldn't contain, he wished desperately that it didn't have to be this way, but understood that for now, they had no other choice.

FIN


End file.
